Taiwan nuclear reactor shut down over fire

A reactor at a nuclear power plant in southern Taiwan has been shut down after a fire broke out in the plant, its operator says.

The fire at the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County, apparently caused by a short-circuited transformer, broke out late on Sunday and was extinguished by the plant’s own firefighters after 17 minutes, the Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) said in a statement.

There was no evacuation and no danger of radiation leakage, the statement said, adding that the closed rector will be repaired in the next two weeks.

The affected 951-megawatt reactor, which was launched in May 1985, is the youngest one in Taiwan, according to Taiwan’s nuclear safety watchdog, the Atomic Energy Council.

A similar accident in 2013 at the same plant took 85 days to be repaired.

Taiwan currently has three operational nuclear power plants and six reactors, which provide almost one-fifth of its electricity.